Sharp Ends: Stories from the World of The First Law (35 page)

‘What have you done?’ whispered Bethod, staring at the thing on the table that hardly looked like it had ever been a man.

And Logen smiled that easy smile he used to have – the smile of a man who’d never entertained a dark purpose – and shrugged.

‘Changed my mind.’

Acknowledgements

As always, four people without whom:

Bren Abercrombie, whose eyes are sore from reading it.
Nick Abercrombie, whose ears are sore from hearing about it.
Rob Abercrombie, whose fingers are sore from turning the pages.
Lou Abercrombie, whose arms are sore from holding me up.

Then, my heartfelt thanks:

To the editors of anthologies who, unbelievably, paid me to write some of these stories in the first place: Lou Anders, Jonathan Strahan, George R. R. Martin, Gardner Dozois and Shawn Speakman.

To all the lovely and talented folks at my UK Publisher, Gollancz, and their parent Orion, particularly Simon Spanton, Sophie Calder, Jen McMenemy, Mark Stay and Jon Wood. Then, of course, to all those who’ve helped make, publish, publicise, translate and above all
sell
my books wherever they may be around the world.

To the artists responsible for somehow continuing to make me look classy: Dave Senior and Laura Brett.

For keeping the wolf on the right side of the door: Robert Kirby.

To all the writers whose paths have crossed mine on the Internet, at the bar, or in some cases around the D&D table and in the fencing hall, and who’ve provided help, support, laughs and plenty of ideas worth the stealing. You know who you are.

And lastly, yet firstly:

My partner in crimes against fantasy fiction, Gillian Redfearn. There is no end sharper than the point of her pencil …

Also by Joe Abercrombie:

THE FIRST LAW TRILOGY:
The Blade Itself
Before They Are Hanged
Last Argument of Kings

Best Served Cold
Red Country
The Heroes

THE SHATTERED SEA TRILOGY:
Half a King
Half a War
Half a World

A Gollancz eBook

Collection copyright © Joe Abercrombie 2016
All rights reserved

A Beautiful Bastard
copyright © Joe Abercrombie 2016
Small Kindness
copyright © Joe Abercrombie 2016
The Fool Jobs
copyright © Joe Abercrombie. First published in
Swords & Dark Magic
, edited by Jonathan Strahan, 2010
Skipping Town
copyright © Joe Abercrombie. First published in
Legends
, edited by Ian Whates, 2013
Hell
copyright © Joe Abercrombie. First published in
Best Served Cold
, 2010
Two’s Company
copyright © Joe Abercrombie 2016
Wrong Place, Wrong Time
copyright © Joe Abercrombie 2016
Some Desperado
copyright © Joe Abercrombie. First published in
Dangerous Women
, edited by Gardner Dozois and George R. R. Martin, 2013
Yesterday, Near a Village Called Barden
copyright © Joe Abercrombie. First published in
The Heroes
, 2012
Three’s A Crowd
copyright © Joe Abercrombie 2016
Freedom!
copyright © Joe Abercrombie. First published in
Red Country
, 2013
Tough Times All Over
copyright © Joe Abercrombie. First published in
Rogues
edited by Gardner Dozois and George R. R. Martin, 2015
Made a Monster
copyright © Joe Abercrombie 2016

This Anthology edited by Gillian Redfearn.

The right of Joe Abercrombie to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

First published in Great Britain in 2016 by
Gollancz
The Orion Publishing Group Ltd
Carmelite House
50 Victoria Embankment
London, EC4Y 0DZ
An Hachette UK Company

This eBook first published in 2016 by Gollancz.

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN 978 0 575 10470 9

All characters and events in this publication are fictitious and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of the publisher, nor to be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published without a similar condition, including this condition, being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

www.joeabercrombie.com
www.orionbooks.co.uk
www.gollancz.co.uk